How has beekeeping changed over time? An archaeobeekeeper and an archaeological open-air museum in Germany showcase pre- and proto-historic beekeeping methods

Archaeological finds provide proof of beekeeping in man-made places for bees to live in for the first sedentary cultures. Tubular wooden constructions (log hives) and skeps are the typical bee habitations for (pre-)historic beekeepingin Central Europe. Only two really groundbreaking changes can be pointed out that have led to the modern type of beehives which are a very new development in comparison to the ancient practice of beekeeping.

A
summary of beekeeping in prehistory is often reduced to two
highlights: a representation of the so-called honey hunting in
Mesolithic rock-art and the images of honey harvesting, commercial
collection of honey of wild or semi-wild honeybee colonies in living
trees) in the Middle Ages
Zeidlerei (known
inGerman
as Zeidlerei.
Interestingly, this picture of honey harvesting as the origin of our
beekeeping has a strong impact. There are also pictures of manmade
beehives and beekeeping from that time, but the honey harvester
(Zeidler)
is
obviously considered so archaic that it remains in memory. Between
these two highlights there are approx. 7000-10,000 years and all the
archaeological eras that have brought great changes and developments
in handicraft and cultural techniques. This could also lead to the
conclusion that from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages “bees were
kept in the living tree” implying that there was no development
from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages and that sedentism had no
influence on beekeeping, and instead, that the first development
towards modern day beekeeping happened after the Middle Ages. But
this is not the case…

The Archaeological Beekeeping Project at the Zeiteninsel – Archaeological Open-Air Museum Marburger Land, Germany (www.zeiteninsel.de) started with one beehive – in a modified modern bee dwelling to show people how bees build the combs and construct their homes. However, the aim of the project from the beginning was to show beekeeping in five different prehistoric eras – Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and finally the early Germanic Peoples – in Central Europe.

The
starting point of the prehistoric display was the Neolithic. Wooden
tubes found at a lake dwelling (Arbon Bleiche III on
Lake Constance in Switzerland)
were interpreted as bee habitations. Based on these wooden tubes, the
first “Neolithic beehive” was introduced at the
Zeiteninsel-project in 2017. The log hive was reconstructed according
to the smaller find from Arbon Bleiche III and was accepted very well
by the bees.

Next to be reconstructed was the bee dwelling for the early Germanic peoples. So, in 2018, the first wicker skep was introduced to the project. This is based on a find from the northern German coast dated to the 1st/2nd century CE from Feddersen Wierde, a terp settlement. The reconstruction of this skep started with harvesting the willow branches and working with techniques of basketmaking in order to build the frame of the skep. This frame was covered with a mixture of clay and long hay. There are no remains from the cover of the frame, therefore this is open to experiment and discussion. It is important that the clay can be applied in a very thin layer, so the skep will not become too heavy for handling and the clay will not crack. Until now, it is still an experiment in progress about how to harvest honey and find the right management technique for the hive in the wicker skep. The bees accepted the wicker skep very well, so the hive works! (In this project, the standards of modern beekeeping with regard to animal welfare and legal requirements are guaranteed.)

So today there are three different types of bee habitations at the Zeiteninsel: a wooden tube as a Neolithic bee dwelling, one wicker skep as a Germanic bee home and one modified modern beehive to actually show people more of the life of the bees, for example, for visiting school classes.

There
is archaeological evidence of wooden tubes aka log hives nearly
throughout all the time periods of central Europe, starting with the
Neolithic (as mentioned above). The Bronze Age is a particularly
interesting era for the question of the use of bee products. A steady
availability of huge amounts of wax was required for the lost wax
process. Beekeeping management may well have been implemented during
the Bronze Age to ensure the availability of wax. There is evidence
of a wooden log hive in a Bronze Age settlement in Berlin
Lichterfelde, Germany. During the first centuries CE (early Germanic
peoples) there are several archaeological finds of log hives, e.g. in
Pinnow, Germany. For the early Middle Ages there is a find in the
Venemoor, Germany, and there is evidence of the same types until
recent centuries, for example, a log hive dated to 1770 from
Spreewald, Gemany. The first evidence of a man-made bee dwelling that
is not a wooden tube is the wicker skep of the Feddersen Wierde,
Germany (as mentioned above). You can find a written source from a
Roman author (Columella,1st century CE) and pictures of wicker skeps
from the 8th century CE until the late Middle Ages. Sometime in the
middle of the first millennium of the Christian Era is when skeps
made of straw must have appeared, but we have no archaeological
evidence for exactly when. There are pictures of straw skeps from the
Central Middle Ages onwards. And there was beekeeping in straw skeps
in Germany until the middle of the 20th century.

As
explained in the article before “Which came first, bees or crops?
Why does it matter?” by Debra A. Reid, there was a huge development
towards beekeeping on a larger scale, having more control over the
bees, possibilities to manipulate the hive and of course to
centrifuge the harvested honey thanks to inventions in the mid-19th
century. This is the origin of the modern bee dwelling nearly all
beekeepers all over the world now use: (Mostly) wooden supers with
moveable frames.

These are the three different types of central European bee hives: log, skep and modular supers. Log and skep have one central factor in common: these beekeeping methods work with fixed frames, with wax combs that are built by the bees in their free order and these are fixed at the insides of the habitation (top and sides, not the bottom). Only the invention of the movable frames brought a basic change in the handling of beehives.

So what is the reason for development or, let’s say remaining with what is already there? Is it a question of time or are there different influencing factors? There were two major changes in beekeeping methods:

1)
the beginning of beekeeping in man-made bee habitations near
settlements co-evolving with sedentism and keeping livestock in
general

2) there was this huge development within beekeeping techniques in the middle of the 19th century (see above) and there was a completely different area of beekeeping in living trees in forests, but this is more an issue of different natural, agricultural and cultural landscapes and not a time-related development.